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In Sirius Danger

by Aeterna

A/N: In memory of Padfoot. I shall miss thee. This is also an alternate version of how Sirius became Snuffles, even though I love Katinka's version.

~~*~*~~

The second year girls' dormitory was silent. A cat belongling to one of the girls was stretched luxuriously on a rug. The moonlight played softly on the scarlet four-poster hangings. In such complete silence, you'd expect everyone in the dormitory to be fast asleep, but it wasn't so. A stream of moonlight revealed a head of flaming red hair and a pair of bright brown eyes, which were wide open.

The hair and eyes belonged to none other than Ginny Weasley.

Ginny was mad at her brothers. All six of them. Well ... two of them really didn't have anything to do with it, but she was still mad. They didn't respect her. They saw her as a little girl who couldn't take care of herself, ever since she was almost killed by that talking diary that turned out to be Voldemort.

But she wasn't a little girl! She was twelve; she could take care of herself, thank you very much! She was tired of constantly being smothered by her brothers and watching while they had all the adventures and all the fun. She wanted to have an adventure, too!

Ginny sat resolutely up in her bed. She would have an advetnure. Tonight. Her brothers would be asleep by now. She could just get dressed and sneak outside ...

A delicious tingle ran through her spine at the thought: freedom. Nobody to boss her around. Nobody to disapprove ... she could do whatever she wanted!

She scrambled out of bed and tiptoed to her trunk, pulling out a pair of jeans and a jumper. While getting dressed, Ginny was startled to hear a soft mewing sound. She turned to see a pair of yellow eyes staring at her. She glared at the cat and brought a finger to her mouth to shush it. The cat's eyes narrowed, but Ginny was already opening the door and padding silently down the stairs.

She raced as quickly and silently as possible across the common room, out the portrait hole, through the hallways, and out the great wooden doors. The liberating November air immediately lifted her spirits and she flew across the grounds, soaking in the moonlight, her eyes fixed on her destination: the Forbidden Forest.

Having heard the story of Harry and Ron's adventure into the forest their first year, Ginny was sure she could handle it. She was, after all, older than they were at the time ... and it wasn't like Sirius Black was in there or anything.

Ginny soon reached the forest's edge and looked around. The ancient trees' knobbly branches silhouetted themselves against the midnight sky. Moonlight poured through the gaps overhead, illuminating patches of the ground. The subdued sounds of owls hooting provided a peaceful serenade. Everything was so dreamlike, Ginny wondered how anyone could be afraid of this place.

Entranced, she began to wander farther into the forest, soaking in all of the exotic sights and sounds, and thinking up interesting names to call her brothers for being afraid of the forest. She was smiling over a particularly witty one directed at George when a flash of silver caught her eye. She turned to see what it was and gasped.

It was a unicorn ... and it was already running away.

Without a second thought, Ginny sprinted after the it, navigating through the foliage, which grew thicker with each passing footstep. A tiny flicker of silver light kept her pounding onward. She had to get a better look ...

RRRRRIP!

A protruding branch snagged the corner of Ginny's jumper, sending her flying into a bush. She groaned and sat up, trying to pull the twigs and leaves out of her windswept hair and wishing she could have seen the unicorn up close. She sighed and hoisted herself out of the bush. Thankfully, nothing was broken.

Ginny looked around and felt her jaw drop. The scene before her was no longer a surreal, moonlit wonderland, but had become dark and menacing. The trees towered above her, thier branches blocking out any hint of moonlight. With a jolt of terror, Ginny realized that she had no idea which way she'd come. Nothing was familiar.

She sat down on the ground and put her head in her hands. Things couldn't get any worse.

"Grrrrrr ..." Ginny was startled by what sounded like a dog. She shot off the ground and whirled around and saw not one, but three gigantic dogs advancing on her.

She realized that it wasn't three dogs, but rather, one three-headed dog. Ginny stood frozen to the spot, staring at the monster. She just barely registered that this must be Fluffy, the dog Hagrid brought to guard the Philosopher's Stone. She gulped. She was dead now. Oh, what her brothers would think! If only they were here! They could help her.

One of the heads began barking viciously, while another one was salivating and giving Ginny a savage, hungry stare. The third bared its teeth and snapped. Ginny closed her eyes, expecting the worst, when she heard a loud bark that certainly hadn't come from any of the three heads, which now yelped in unified pain.

Ginny watched in amazement and a huge black dog bounded around Fluffy, biting and clawing, while avoiding attacks from all three heads. The scuffle continued for several minutes until, finally Fluffy limped away, nursing a wounded leg.

The great black dog proceeded to pad up to Ginny and crouch down, an obvious signal for her to ride on him. She climbed on to the kind beast's back and held on tightly to his neck as he brought her straight to the moonlit edge of the forest.

Ginny climbed back off of the dog and stroked him fondly behind the ears. "Good boy," she said softly. The dog's blue eyes glowed in the moonlight as he sniffed curiously at her sweater. Ginny laughed, and giving him one last pat, left, saying, "Good-bye, Snuffles."

//

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